Gas prices hit hard for small business owners

With gas prices now setting new record highs in California many people are trying to cut back on driving. But that's not possible for some businesses.

Outside the downtown Marriott Hotel, San Francisco cab driver Henry Baqleh tells it like it is.

"Today is [a] very bad day," he said.

He's been driving people around since 6:30 a.m., but $15 is all that's left after he paid to fill up the gas tank. Now, with an hour left in his shift, the whole day hinges on whether somebody wants to go to the airport.

"I wait for the Marriott; if I take airport, I make $65," he said.

It turned out to be his lucky day. He gets his fare and heads to the airport.

But as they wait in line behind him, other cabbies are doing the math on this latest hike in gas prices and they're not liking the answer.

"It has an impact of around $600 a month on our gas budget," taxi driver Ramesh Kumar said.

But where these prices can hurt even more is if you drive something bigger than a taxicab. If you're a business owner with a small fleet of trucks or vans, numbers like these are enough to make you rethink the way you operate.